New York Lawyers Hold Die-in over Killings of Eric Garner, Akai Gurley Attorneys of Color Caucus - ACLA In New York City, protesters gathered Wednesday to mark five months since the death of Eric Garner. Garner died after police placed him in a banned chokehold and pinned him to the ground while he repeatedly said, I can’t breathe. A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo for Garner’s death. Demonstrators are also calling for justice in the case of slain African American Akai Gurley, who died in November after an officer allegedly fired his gun by accident in a dimly lit staircase at a Brooklyn housing project. The officer, Peter Liang, then texted his union rep as Gurley lay dying. On Wednesday, a group of attorneys staged a die-in at a Brooklyn jail. This is attorney Lisa Edwards and, before her, Deborah Wright. Deborah Wright, president, Association of Legal Aid Attorneys UAW Local 2325: We represent clients every single day, and we want them to know that not only are we upset, obviously, as what has been happening with Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and now also we’re waiting, what’s going to happen with Akai Gurley and that grand jury decision. We also want to make sure that our clients who are here today and in the other boroughs know that we care about them. Lisa Edwards: We work within the system, but the system is broken. So we’re here to say it’s time for the system to be fixed. We need a special prosecutor. We need open grand jury minutes. And that’s what we need to get justice. /democracynow.org/2014/12/18/headlines#12189
Posted on: Thu, 18 Dec 2014 18:56:00 +0000